800 REPORT— 1891. 



2. On the Limits of Savage Religion. 

 By Edwakd B. Tyloe, D.G.L., F.B.S. 



In defining the religious systems of the lower races, so as to place them cor- 

 rectly in the history of culture, careful examination is necessary to separate the 

 genuine developments of native theology from the effects of intercourse with civi- 

 lised foreigners. Especially through missionary influence since 1500, ideas of 

 dualistic and monotheistic deities, and of moral government of the world, have 

 been implanted on native polytheism in various parts of the globe. For instance 

 as has lately become clear by the inquiries of anthropologists, the world-famous 

 Great Spirit of the North American Indians arose from the teachings of the Jesuit 

 missionaries in Canada early in the seventeenth century. This and analogous 

 names for a Supreme Deity unknown previously to native belief, have since spread 

 oyer North America, amalgamating with native doctrines and ceremonial rites into 

 highly interesting but perplexing combinations. The mistaken attribution to 

 barbaric races of theological beliefs really belonging to the cultured world, as well 

 as the development among these races of new religious formations under cultured 

 influence, are due to several causes, which it is the object of this paper to examine. 

 (1) Direct adoption from foreign teachers ; (2) the exaggeration of genuine native 

 deities of a lower order into a God or Devil ; (3) the conversion of native words, 

 denoting a whole class of minor spiritual beings, such as ghosts or demons, into 

 individual names, alleged to be those of a Supreme Good Deity or a rival Evil 

 Deity. Detailed criticism of the names and descriptions of such beings in accounts 

 of the religious of native tribes of America and Australasia was adduced, giving 

 in many cases direct proof of the beliefs in question being borrowed or developed 

 under foreign influence, and thus strengthening the writer's view that they, and 

 ideas related to them, form no original part of the religion of the lower races. The 

 problems involved are, however, of great difficulty, the only hope of their full 

 solution in many cases lying in the researches of anthropologists and philologists 

 minutely acquainted w;ith the culture and languages of the districts ; while such 

 researches will require to be carried out without delay, before important evidence, 

 etill available, has disappeared. 



3. ' Gouvade.' By H. Ling Roth. 



Couvade is the name of the curious custom which orders that when a child is 

 "born the father takes to his sleeping corner and behaves as though he had brought 

 forth. The origin of the word is French, from couiier to hatch. To Europeans the 

 custom appears barbarous in its treatment of the wife, who has to get up and go 

 about her usual duties and perhaps now attend to the husband. Savage women 

 do not suffer in labour to the same extent as the more civilised women do ; the 

 reasons for this are explained on physiological grounds. In this inquiry the suffer- 

 ings of the wornen may therefore be neglected. The geographical distribution of 

 the custom : it is met with in Europe, Asia, and mostly in America. Its existence 

 in Africa is doubtfid. In the West Indies and South America at the present day 

 travellers frequently come across it as a living custom. In AuBtralia it is unknown. 

 It is mostly found to exist amongst people who live in isolated districts and who 

 appear to have been driven from more fruitful lands. It is not found amongst the 

 lowest class of savages nor amongst the highly civilised. Comparisons between 

 the state of the large continents do not explain the causes of its distribution, but 

 an ethnological examination will probably explain it. The reasons for practising 

 the custom given by the people themselves and the explanations given by anthro- 

 pologists and travellers are all equally at variance. Bachofen's original theory 

 that the custom indicates the turning point in society from the maternal to the 

 paternal finds new support at the present, day. The apparent correctness of this 

 theory is most convincing. But if this theory be correct why is the custom not 

 found in Australia, where the great society change is going on at the present 

 day? Mr. im Thurn suggests that we should compare the custom with those 

 apparently allied to it, and so get at its origin. The custom as practised by 



